Spellbound
by Missah J
Summary: Many wizards and witches know that it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. But it's not like any of them are willing to believe it. Pairing 8: Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger
1. Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood

Spellbound

_For Kore-of-Myth's 100-pairings challenge_

By: Slytherclaw Coffee Ninja

_This never happened._

_This night, _us…

_Never happened..._

Of course, the thoughts occurring in Draco Malfoy's head as he paced the Slytherin common room were not known to the person slumbering away in Ravenclaw Tower.

He stopped pacing, and sat down in an arm chair by the fire. He could almost see her in the embers of the fire as they flitted around the fireplace, pinpricks of light in the darkness.

"_What are you doing here, Draco?" she had asked him, a note of caution in her voice, her wide, blue eyes sparkling. No. Eyes didn't sparkle, but somehow, hers did._

_He was at a loss for words. Umbridge had told him and the other members of the Inquisitorial Squad that they had to follow Potter and all of his friends, because she knew they were up to something. However, all he had found in the corridor was the Ravenclaw that he would sometimes see with the Weaslette. _

Shaking his head and trying to clear his mind of the thoughts of the occurrence, he sighed. Nothing had happened. Nothing…nothing at all…

"…_were you looking for the nargle? They particularly like mistletoe, and there's quite a bit of it around the castle."_

Nargles? Mistletoe? Yeah…sure…whatever…just show me where Potter and his friends have been going.

_Somehow, none of that translated from thoughts to actual words, and instead, he ended up saying:_

"_Nargles? What are those?"_

_He was never a particularly curious person, but there was something so entrancing about the girl's presence…something so spellbinding…_

_Her eyes lit up when he asked._

He clenched the arm rest, and tried to drive the thoughts from his mind.

"_Well, they're creatures that enjoy stealing. They like to congregate in mistletoe, and…"_

_He kissed her. Just like that._

_She was shocked, and yet, he knew that some part of her expected it, because she had seen him on the patrols before. Watching her move through the corridor, her blonde hair swishing, and her blue eyes full of curiosity, completely spellbound by her…_

_However, the moment didn't last. He left. He couldn't risk anyone finding out what he had done. A moment's weakness, a moment's desire, and he could be ruined forever._

"No. That never did happen."


	2. Theodore Nott and Hermione Granger

Theodore wasn't quite sure what it was, but there was something about the holidays that made him feel more distinctly out of place than he normally did – as though there was something missing, something that couldn't be attained by celebrating the holidays. During his first three years at Hogwarts, he would spend his time in the Slytherin common room, reading. He relished solace, and the empty common room gave him that.

However, in his fourth year, things were a bit more difficult, as very few people left to go home for the holidays. It seemed as though everyone was staying for the Yule Ball.

It was that that drove him to the library, perhaps to find a book or two, and sit in a corner, reading. Perhaps the library would be empty, and he wouldn't have to worry about running into hordes of people.

"Did you see him?" giggled a fifth year Hufflepuff girl.

"I did!" squealed another girl.

Rolling his eyes, he continued along, searching the shelves for a good book to read. However, all he found were more giggling girls.

"Ugh. Did you see who he was with?" one girl asked her friend.

"Yeah, Hermione what's-her-name," her friend said, sighing.

Theodore wasn't entirely sure what all the commotion was about, until he saw Viktor Krum and Hermione Granger sitting together at one of the tables.

Almost instantly, it felt as though his face was burning. He walked past the two of them, and, as his eyes lingered on her, and caused him to smack his forehead into a bookcase, and drop the books that he was holding onto the floor.

Yes, solace was definitely better.

At least he wouldn't have to worry about seeing Hermione Granger.


	3. Bellatrix Lestrange and Lord Voldemort

It is at that precise moment that he knows how much he has forsaken her.

She's always stood by him, supported him, even when his cause appeared to have been done for; when he had nearly been vanquished years earlier. Yet she never gave up hope that she would find him.

He does not love. He does not believe in love. It stopped existing for him long before she was born.

She was endlessly devoted to him in a way that most of his followers had never been. She was willing to fight to the death, just to see his cause through. She had said it so many times, that he had actually come to believe it.

He did not think that she would die.

She could _not _have died.

Yet there she was. Amidst all the chaos, and wizards and witches of many different ages and sizes descending on the castle, he sees her. It's hard for him to imagine that she has died, as she still looks as she did in life.

But as she lies there, he knows that he is done for.

His cause can not exist without her.


	4. Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson

They would often sit together in the common room, after everyone had gone to bed. She would be sitting cross legged on the couch, and he would be lying across it, his head in her lap, and her stroking his hair.

"I love you," she had said to him more than once, and each time, his stomach would lurch, and he would simply nod, and not say anything more than that.

They were both prefects, so they frequently saw each other, and she would make up excuses to sneak off her patrol and meet up with him when he would be wandering through the corridors on the floor above.

By the end of their sixth year, when he was on the run, he didn't know what he would say to her if he happened to come across her again.

Sometimes he would suppose that he took the coward's way out.

Because there was no way he could have told her he didn't feel the same way.


	5. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger

He thinks that perhaps he's over thinking it.

Who she chose to go to the ball with was her prerogative, and there was nothing that he could do to change that.

All that mattered was that she would have a good time with the person that she went with.

At least, that was the way that he had always assumed that he would feel.

He wonders if, perhaps, he had never actually truly given thought to someone liking her that way.

Perhaps he thought she would always be alone, so he could push that thought to the back of his mind, and go on with his life without thinking about it at all.

Seeing her there, with him, dancing, laughing, and smiling, he can feel the hatred bubbling up inside of him.

Those things were not meant for _him_ to share; they were not meant for _him _to even see. He can't help but despise _him_ for getting something he had previously thought was untouchable, something that no one would ever be allowed to have.

He wants, more than anything, to go right up to _him_, to tap _him_ on the shoulder and tell _him_ to bugger off. But then…what would happen? She would probably shout at him – run off, and most of all, be upset with him.

She's happy, and that's what matters.

…But he still glares at _him_, hoping that this is just a momentary infatuation.

Because he can't bear the thought of _him_ taking up a coveted spot that he had wanted for years.

No.

_He_ doesn't deserve more than a moment there.

But he does.


	6. Ginny Weasley and Tom Riddle

Ginny had never questioned the journal that had turned up in her cauldron. She didn't even question the existence of the journal when each day, she poured a little bit more of her soul into the pages, a little more of herself into every word that she formed with her quill.

The diary wanted to be called 'Tom', so she complied with its wish.

The entries were mostly mundane, but Tom never cared, never once complained. Each day, she began to love 'Tom' more and more.

_Dear Tom,_

_I'm scared. There are gaps in my memory—entire hours that I can't remember, and I'm really frightened. The other day I turned up in the common room with feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there._

_Ginny,_

_Don't be frightened. Everything is going to be okay. Nothing bad is happening to you._

And for a long time, she never questioned him.


	7. Sirius Black and Remus Lupin

He doesn't want to believe it.

There is no way that it could be true.

And yet, every moment that he spends awake, he questions everything that he knew about him, everything that he had ever known about Padfoot.

He can't sleep. Every night he spends tossing and turning, his mind buzzing with memories of their years at Hogwarts. They were carefree then.

They were happy.

It begins to take a toll on him, the lack of sleep, the disinterest. James. Dead. Lily. Dead. Peter. Dead.

Sirius?

Alive.

But he won't be for much longer. The dementors will make him wither away into nothing.

Full of anger and hate, he decides to go away. Vanish.

Because he thought he _cared._ He thought that Padfoot _loved, _but right now it doesn't seem as though Padfoot loved anyone besides himself.

And he knows that it's best to vanish. Best to go away, to preserve his memories of him.

Best to disappear.

For good.


	8. Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger

It wasn't romantic or loving in the least.

It wasn't what he imagined what would happen when they touched for the first time.

But for hours after Hermione had punched him, Draco kept absentmindedly brushing his hand against his nose. It was such an involuntary action that he hadn't realized that he was doing anything until Crabbe had had the indecency to ask why he was touching his nose.

"Shut up," he snapped, as his gaze shifted towards the fire in the common room. If he sits still for long enough, he can still feel the moment of impact, when her fist collided with his nose.

He had long ago resigned himself to the notion that she and him would never belong to the same world, but for that brief moment:

They did.


End file.
